Ted Hughes

by Jonathan Bate

  ‘Metamorphosis’ (SP; poem), 114

  Mexborough, Yorkshire, 35, 47

  Mexborough Grammar School, 3, 49, 52–3, 63

  Mexico City, 403

  Michel, Caroline (Mrs Matthew Evans), 504

  Michie, James, 161, 352, 435

  Middlebrook, Diane: Her Husband, 19

  Millais, John Everett: painting of Ophelia, 410

  Miller, Arthur, 159

  Miller, Karl, 78, 96, 353, 405

  Miłosz, Czesław, 233, 282

  Milton, John, 464; Lycidas, 512

  ‘Minotaur, The’ (TH; poem), 198

  ‘Minotaur 2’ (TH; poem), 523

  Minton, Than, 99, 212, 401

  Mitchell, Adrian, 360, 362

  Moat, John, 325

  Modern Poetry in Translation (magazine), 86, 233, 252

  Modern Poets, The: An American-British Anthology, 146, 221

  ‘Money, my enemy’ (TH; poem), 16

  Monroe, Marilyn, 159

  Montaigne, Michel de, 255

  Monteith, Charles: and Larkin’s parody of Crow, 14; and TH’s Meet My Folks, 148; at Faber party, 169; publishes Murphy, 192; and publication of Ariel, 234; recommends TH for post in Germany, 242; asks TH to edit Emily Brontë poems, 272, 458; and TH’s Gaudete, 334; and The Rattle Bag, 386; and TH’s proposed Remains of Elmet, 388; and A Choice of Shakespeare’s Verse, 458–60; retires, 536; see also Faber and Faber (publishers)

  ‘Moon and Yew Tree, The’ (SP; poem), 12, 345

  Moon-Bells (TH; poems), 387–8

  Moon-Whales and Other Moon Poems (TH; poems), 387

  Moore, Clem, 203–4, 211

  Moore, Marianne, 135, 144

  Moors Murders, 295, 390

  Moortown Diary (Moortown Elegies; Moortown; TH; farming book), 272, 319, 323–4, 343–4, 349, 405

  Morgan, Robin: accuses TH of abuse and rape of SP, 347–9, 432, 439, 513, 535; ‘Arraignment’ (poem), 347–9; Monster, 347–9; Sisterhood is Powerful (ed.), 345–6

  ‘Morning before Christmas, The’ (TH; poem), 409

  ‘Morning Song’ (SP; poem), 216, 238

  Morpurgo, Clare, 417, 425, 499

  Morpurgo, Horatio, 481–2

  Morpurgo, Michael, 42–3, 414, 417, 425, 499

  Morrigu Press, The, 382

  Mosley, Sir Oswald, 52

  Motion, Andrew, 386, 488, 502–3

  Mottram, Eric, 73

  Movement, The (school of poets), 180

  Muir, Edwin, 135

  Murphy, Richard: rejects SP’s advances, 153, 314; background, 191; poetry, 191–2; invites TH to Ireland, 193; and publication of Ariel, 236–8; moves to Doonreaghan, Cashel, 244; TH visits in Ireland, 246–7; and first Poetry International Festival, 252; and TH’s move to Lumb House, 282; campus readings in USA with TH, 302; TH praises Jill Barber to, 363; letter from TH on exhaustion, 399; TH meets at Connaught hotel, London, 537

  Myers, Lucas (‘Luke’): on TH’s inner life, 16; at Cambridge, 86–7, 106, 114; SP meets, 98–9, 104; in Paris, 119; visits TH and SP in USA, 145; letter from TH on American poetry, 147; visits TH and SP in London, 161; and SP’s rages, 175; and TH’s writer’s block, 226; newsy letter from TH, 256; TH meets in New York, 302; letter from TH on Orghast, 312; and TH’s trouble with tax inspector, 381; and TH’s fishing, 406; and TH’s depression, 413, 416; TH describes Nick to, 415; TH’s correspondence with, 476; Crow Steered, Bergs Appeared, 558

  Mytholmroyd, Yorkshire, 3, 23, 26–7, 33

  National Rivers Authority, 475

  National Service Act (1949), 61

  National Theatre, London, 256

  Neruda, Pablo, 243, 252–3

  Nessie the Mannerless Monster (TH; comic verse), 228

  Neville, Jill, 314

  New American Review, 312

  New Selected Poems 1957–1994 (TH), 189, 360, 485, 496, 507, 515, 522

  New Selected Poems (1982; TH), 407

  New Writing (ed. Malcolm Bradbury and Andrew Motion), 502

  ‘New Year’ (TH; poem), 409

  New York Review of Books, 353

  New York Times, 167, 227

  New York Times Book Review, 293

  New Yorker (magazine), 124, 157, 174

  Newman, Charles (ed.): The Art of Sylvia Plath, 345

  Newsweek (US magazine), 292

  ‘Nicholas’ (SP; poem), 157

  ‘Nicholas Ferrer’ (TH; poem), 31, 145

  Nicholson, Max: The Environmental Revolution, 297–8

  ‘Nick and the Candlestick’ (SP; poem), 202, 216

  Nicola (bank manager’s daughter), 181–3

  Nietzsche, Friedrich, 93

  Nile, river: TL cruises on, 417

  Norris, Hilda, 62

  North Tawton, Devon see Court Green

  North-East Drift New Salmon Fishery (Northumbria), 475

  Northampton, Mass., 133–4

  Northcott Theatre, Exeter, 527

  Northern Broadsides (theatre company), 533

  Norton, Dick, 357–8, 436

  ‘Notes on the Chronological Order of Sylvia Plath’s Poems’ (TH; essay), 345

  Nye, Robert, 228

  Oates, Joyce Carol, 355

  O’Brien, Conor Cruise, 191

  O’Brien, Edna, 374, 374–5

  O’Brien, Sean, 488

  Observer (newspaper), 166–7, 213, 312, 314, 316, 386, 419, 445, 504

  O’Connell, Fintan, 75

  ‘October Salmon’ (TH; poem), 409, 411

  ‘Ode for Ted’ (SP; poem), 114

  ‘Offers, The’ (TH; poem), 255, 379, 510, 523, 526, 562–4

  Old Vic theatre, 257, 259

  Olsen, John, 367

  ‘Once I said lightly’ (TH; poem), 339

  ‘Open to Huge Light’ (TH; poem), 392

  ‘Ophelia’ (TH; poem), 410

  ‘Opus 131’ (TH; poem), 521–2

  Orchard, Carol see Hughes, Carol

  Orchard, Jack (Carol’s father): background, 254; assists TH in running Court Green, 317; cancer and death, 329, 343, 363, 542; TH dedicates poems to memory, 342–4, 389

  Orchard, Jean (Carol’s sister), 384, 483

  Orchard, Minnie (née Evans), 254

  Orchard, Robert (Carol’s brother), 255, 385

  Order of Merit: awarded to TH, 4, 538

  Orghast (TH; play and invented language), 307, 309–12, 322–3

  Orley House, Bideford, 18

  Orpheus (TH; children’s play), 322

  Orts (TH; poems), 341–2, 393, 410

  Osborne, John, 229

  ‘Other, The’ (TH; poem), 450

  ‘Otter, An’ (TH; poem), 164, 273, 325

  Ovid: Metamorphoses, 490, 527–31

  Owen, Roger, 74

  Owen, Wilfred, 477; Collected Poems, 236

  Oxford, 161

  Palmer and Dodge (Boston lawyers), 6, 432

  Paltrow, Gwyneth, 548

  ‘Paris 1954’ (TH; poem), 510

  Paris: TH visits, 83, 306; SP in, 106–7, 110; TH and SP honeymoon in, 119

  Pasternak, Boris, 260

  Paulin, Tom, 504

  Pavese, Cesare, 404

  Peabody and Arnold (law firm), 6

  Pease, David, 385

  Pembroke College, Cambridge, 61, 65, 71, 73, 80

  Penguin Books, 179

  ‘Pennines in April’ (TH; poem), 164

  ‘Perfect Light’ (TH; poem), 184

  Perloff, Marjorie, 355

  Persia (Iran), 307–10, 559

  Philip, Prince, Duke of Edinburgh, 385, 485

  ‘Pike’ (TH; poem), 145, 160, 186, 271

  Pilinszky, János, 320–2, 369, 430

  ‘Pink Wool Knitted Dress, A’ (TH; poem), 523

  Pinner, David: Ritual, 333

  Pinter, Harold: The Caretaker, 168

  ‘Platform One’ (TH; poem), 518

  Plath, Aurelia (SP’s mother): and autobiographical elements in SP’s work, 10; and editing of SP’s Letters Home, 19, 350, 352–3, 552; letters from SP, 115, 160; visits SP in England
and attends wedding, 116, 119; complains of TH’s not having proper job, 144; buys air mattresses for TH and SP, 149; letters from TH, 159, 276; birth of children, 162–3, 179; cares for Frieda during TH and SP’s travels, 175; visits TH and SP in Devon, 187; final sight of SP, 191; letter from TH on SP’s death, 219; announces visit to see SP’s grave, 222; postpones visit to England, 244; visits England to see grandchildren, 253–4; character and qualities, 254; SP’s attitude to, 254, 518; grandchildren visit in USA, 269, 281, 299; and death of TH’s mother, 278; declines to share cost of Devon house with TH, 288; deposits money into accounts for Frieda and Nick, 288; affected by US publication of The Bell Jar, 304, 350; heart attack, 350; TH visits at Wellesley, 433; and Bell Jar libel case, 434–5

  Plath, Margaret (Warren’s wife), 214

  Plath, Otto (Sylvia’s father): in SP poem, 8; death, 115, 142, 144, 314, 518; grave, 157–8; supposed sympathy for Hitler, 165; SP’s relations with, 222, 351, 474, 518; in SP’s writings, 445–6; Germanic tendencies, 451; beekeeping, 478; birth, 515; see also ‘Daddy’

  Plath, Sylvia: suicide, 1–2, 211–13, 226–7, 239, 240, 250, 446–7, 455, 524; fights with TH, 4, 142; grave, 4, 395, 400, 519, 536, 558; anger at Jane Anderson, 6–7; autobiographical writing, 8, 10; biographers, 11–12, 19, 21, 440; as ‘split personality’, 11; journals, 17, 220, 247, 354–5, 504, 519, 522, 532; TH writes account of last days, 18; TH quotes in broadcast talk, 45; acquires and moves to Devon house (Court Green), 51, 175–8; at Cambridge, 75, 87; irritated by Joe Lyde, 75; first meets TH, 98–104, 523; Huws criticises poem at Cambridge, 99, 341, 522; appearance, 101, 159; sexual precocity, 103–4; visits TH in London, 107–10; travels in Europe, 110; writes of TH, 111; forms close relationship with TH, 113–15; cooking, 115, 120–1, 125, 159, 178, 208; and father’s death, 115, 142, 144–5, 157–8, 314, 446, 518; letters to mother, 115; wedding, 116–17; in Spain, 119–22; visits TH’s family, 122; temporarily separated from TH on return to Cambridge, 123; occupies flat near Cambridge with TH, 124; organises publication of TH’s poems, 124, 127; on Olwyn, 125; Olwyn describes, 125; teaching post at Smith College, 127, 133; flare-up before Fishers, 128–9; returns to USA, 129; TH teaches poetic economy, 130, 140; writing, 130–1; dreams, 131, 159, 515; exhausted by teaching and poor health, 138; admiration for TH’s poetry, 139; cult, 140; suspects TH of infidelity, 140–2; undergoes psychoanalysis, 142, 144, 157, 171; marriage relations, 143–5, 172–3, 205; confessional poetry, 146–7; photographed by Rollie McKenna, 146, 221; stays at Yaddo, 148–9, 154–7, 159; road trip in America and Canada, 149–54; pregnancies, 153–4, 157, 160, 175, 178; Rogovin portrait, 155, 158; occupies Chalcot Square flat in London, 160; rude behaviour, 161–2; at Faber party, 168–9; quarrel with Olwyn, 169–71; interviewed with TH on BBC radio, 172–3; poetic technique, 172; destroys TH manscripts, 173, 190; miscarriage, 173; TH visits in hospital, 173–4; outbursts of rage, 175, 196, 198; wins Eugene Saxton Grant, 178; not published in The New Poetry, 181; attitude to Nicola, 182–3; projected novel on life in Devon, 183, 220; and TH’s affair with Assia, 188, 191; awarded Guinness Prize, 192; visits Murphy in Ireland, 192; Murphy rejects advances, 193, 314; wishes for legal separation, 193; marriage breakdown, 195–8, 200, 219, 510; dislikes country life, 200; poetry matures, 201, 216; moves to Fitzroy Road, London, 202–3, 208; pleased at living apart from TH, 202; relations with Alvarez, 202, 214–15; breakdown before TH, 206–7; demands TH leave country, 208–9; funeral, 213; relations with father, 222, 351, 474, 518; reads Keith Douglas poems, 235–6; attitude to mother, 254, 518; ‘woman’s magazine’ element in writing, 255; TH dreams of, 270; legacy, 303; manuscripts stolen from Court Green, 311; Alvarez writes on suicide, 312–14; hurt by male rejection, 314–15; haunts TH, 322, 325–6; poetic style, 327; TH elegises, 332; as feminist icon, 346, 511–12; and Morgan’s attack on TH, 347–9; editing and publication of letters, 350–2; Kroll’s study of, 350–3; mother proposes publishing letters, 350; posthumous earnings taxed, 381, 413; manuscripts sold by Sotheby’s, 385, 413; photographed at Top Withens, 392, 397; in TH’s ‘Heptonstall Cemetery’, 394, 397; beekeeping, 414, 478; harsh words on TH, 439; gravestone defaced by feminists, 441; in TH’s ‘Trial’, 442–7; writings on father, 445–6; TH casts as Shakespeare character, 458; and myth, 471, 473–4; and TH’s notion of the Goddess, 473; proposed film on marriage to TH, 481; TH’s confessional poems on, 496; and publication of Birthday Letters, 503, 509–23; in TH’s Silvine Notebook (‘The Sorrows of the Deer’), 512–14; in TH’s ‘Black Coat’, 515, 517–18; in TH’s Alcestis translation, 534–5; depicted in Susan Schaeffer’s Poison, 548–52; letters published, 552–3; TH burns last journal, 555; TH sees ghost, 562–4; in TH’s ‘The Offers’, 563–5; centrality in TH’s mental world, 566

  Plath, Warren (SP’s brother): letters from SP, 115–16, 121; in Paris, 122; visits TH and SP in Cape Cod, 129; letter from TH, 159; helps removal to Devon, 178; marriage, 187; as classmate with Clem Moore, 203; at SP’s funeral, 214

  Ploughshares (magazine), 189

  Poe, Edgar Allan, 356

  ‘Poem for a Birthday’ (SP; poem), 156, 158, 161, 174, 354

  Poems (TH with Alan Sillitoe and Ruth Fainlight), 295

  Poetry at the Mermaid (festival), 191–2

  Poetry Book Society, 191, 428; Bulletin, 238, 428

  Poetry Center, New York, 134

  Poetry from Cambridge 1952–4 (collection), 96

  Poetry International Festival: first, London (1967), 252–3, 289; second (1969), 279–80

  Poetry in the Making (TH; school book), 37, 43, 173

  Poetry Now (radio programme), 165

  Pollard, Charlie, 184

  Popa, Vasko, 233, 282, 291; Collected Poems, 283

  Porter, Jannice, 221, 275

  Porter, Peter, 88, 221, 275, 292

  ‘Portraits’ (TH; character sketches), 402

  Pound, Ezra, 179, 243

  Pratt, Alexander Jr (‘Sandy’), 6, 436–7

  Preston, Gill, 211

  Primer for Birds, A (TH; poems), 413

  Prior, Maddy, 334, 362

  ‘Prism, The’ (TH; poem), 132

  Private Eye (magazine), 14

  Prometheus (mythical figure), 307, 309, 322–3

  Prometheus on his Crag (TH; poems), 323, 331, 343

  Propertius, Sextus, 565

  Protestantism, 467

  Pryor, Felix, 385

  ‘Puma’ (TH; poem), 382, 413

  Puritanism, 462, 468, 501

  ‘Pursuit’ (SP; poem), 105, 532

  Purves, Libby, 558

  Pushkin, Alexander: ‘The Prophet’, 539

  Queen Elizabeth, RMS, 129

  Queen’s Gold Medal for Poetry, 324–5, 476

  ‘Rabbit Catcher, The’ (SP; poem), 187, 237, 395, 440–1, 530–1

  ‘Rabbit Catcher, The’ (TH; poem), 187

  Racine, Jean: Phèdre, 482, 532, 537, 566

  Radin, Paul: ‘The Trickster Cycle of the Winnebago Indians’, 289

  Radio Times, 233

  ‘Rain Horse, The’ (TH; story), 57, 181, 249

  Rain-Charm for the Duchy (TH; collection), 486, 488, 497

  ‘Rain-Charm for the Duchy’ (TH; poem), 419, 486

  Rainbow Press, 294–5, 323, 341–2, 346, 387, 390

  Raine, Katheen, 268, 506

  Ramanujan, A.K.: Speaking of Siva, 337–9

  Random House (publishers), 347–8

  Rankin, David, 363, 367

  Rankin, Jennifer: TH’s attachment to, 363, 367, 374; cancer and death, 368, 527; TH’s elegies for, 502; letters from TH, 553; Earth Hold, 367–8; ‘North Devon poem’, 367

  Rankin, Jessica, 367

  Ransom, John Crowe, 147

  ‘Rat under the Bowler, The’ (TH; article), 229–30

  Rattle Bag, The (TH with Heaney; children’s anthology), 386, 483, 485

  Reading, Peter, 488

  ‘Red’ (TH; poem), 102

  Redgrave, Vanessa, 203

  Redgrove, Peter, 79, 88, 256, 268, 303, 306, 465, 516
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  Redgrove, Zoe, 268, 299

  Reid, Christopher, 410, 467, 553–4

  ‘Religion’ (TH; poem), 510

  Remains of Elmet (TH; poems), 391–5, 406, 428; reissued as part of Three Books, 395–6, 411, 429

  ‘Remembrance of Elmet’ (TH), 19

  ‘Remission’ (TH; poem) see ‘Delivering Frieda’

  Rhys, Jean, 235

  Riding, Laura, 17

  Rigg, Dame Diana, 537

  Rilke, Rainer Maria: ‘The Panther’ (poem), 96, 135

  Ringwald, Molly, 481

  River (TH; poetry collection), 395–6, 407–11, 419, 542

  Robertshaw, Derek, 38

  Roche, Clarissa, 139, 200, 356

  Roche, Paul, 139–40

  ‘Rock, The’ (TH; poem), 25

  ‘Roe-deer’ (TH; diary poem), 319

  Roethke, Theodore, 156, 174, 216; ‘The Dream’ (poem), 224

  Rogovin, Howard, 155, 158

  ‘Roosting Hawk’ (TH; poem), 145

  Rose, Gerald, 228

  Rose, Jacqueline: The Haunting of Sylvia Plath, 440–1, 489, 531

  Rosenthal, M.L., 146, 239, 345

  Ross, David, 86–7, 99, 211, 220

  Roth, Philip, 433

  Rougemont Press (Exeter), 294

  Rowse, A.L., 488

  Royal Shakespeare Company, 256–7, 307, 495, 497–9

  Royal Society of Literature: awards prize to Moortown, 405

  Rugby Street, Holborn (London), 107–9, 123, 160, 214

  Ruskin, John, 404

  Rutter, Barrie, 533

  Rylands, George (‘Dadie’), 74

  Sacred Earth Drama Trust, 485

  Sacred Earth Dramas (plays), 485, 499

  ‘Sacrifice’ (earlier ‘Uncle A’; TH; poem), 217, 428, 429, 450

  Sagar, Keith, 338, 428, 477

  Saint Botolph’s Review, 88–9, 91–2, 98, 101

  St John’s College, Cambridge, 77

  Salinger, J.D.: The Catcher in the Rye, 182

  ‘Salmon Eggs’ (TH; poem), 409, 411

  Salmon and Trout Association, 425

  Sassoon, George, 124

  Sassoon, Richard, 103–4, 106, 110, 119, 514

  Sassoon, Siegfried, 104

  Saturday Night (magazine), 228

  Saxton, Joe, 561–2

  Scammell, William, 339, 477, 491

  Schaeffer, Neil, 432

  Schaeffer, Susan Fromberg, 302, 432; Poison (novel), 548–52

  Scofield, Paul, 256, 260

  Scotland, 305